Angry Birds floored by free Bubble Ball game

14-year-old's creation knocks Birds off App Store top spot

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Angry Birds' reign at the top of the App Store free downloads chart has finally been curtailed by a simple physics game designed by a 14-year-old American schoolboy.

Bubble Ball, designed and built by Robert Nay from Utah, presents handheld gamers with the challenge of getting the bubble past the finishing line by using ramps and bouncing it off wooden and metal blocks.

The app has been a sensation since it was launched on 29 December, with over two million downloads on the App Store and the Android Market

Off its perch

Nay built the app from the ground up, writing over 4,000 lines of code. He taught himself how to use an SDK and became a dab-hand at mobile software programming after researching at his local library.

With a little help from his dear mother, he uploaded the app to iTunes and after Ansca (the maker of the SDK he used) made it its app of the week, Bubble Ball began its ascent to the top.

"There were some times when I felt like, 'Can people seriously do this?' It seemed impossible," he says. "But then there were times when things just worked and I would be like: 'Maybe I can actually do this'.

The game finally knocks the mighty Angry Birds down from its lofty perch after over a year at the helm of the free downloads chart on Apple's App Store.

Not to be disparaging towards the young man's fantastic efforts, but it kinda reminds us of that time Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You was finally knocked from atop of the UK singles chart by No Limits by 2 Unlimited.